ABSTRACT
Morality is about having a set of standards by which one lives one’s life. They determine such matters as how one treats other people, honesty, fair dealing and applying a set of understood standards to one’s professional life. Human rights developed from European political thinking in the 18th century and the early 19th century. They coincided with the move away from absolute rule, favoured by such thinkers as Thomas Hobbes who, whilst postulating the idea of rights and a social compact, believed that the only way to ensure firm control and peace with people adhering to the rule of law was to have an absolute ruler. Although human rights have become increasingly more important as arbiters of behaviour in a society that has become increasingly more individualistic since the Second World War, there are other moral systems that have their uses when making professional journalism decisions.
